When Computers Were Human (60 page)
Read When Computers Were Human Online
Authors: David Alan Grier
American committee for coordinating research, founded in First World War
N
ATIONAL
Y
OUTH
A
DMINISTRATION
New Deal agency for employing high school and college youth, sponsored many small computing organizations
N
AUTICAL
A
LMANAC
, A
MERICAN
American equivalent of British Nautical Almanac, founded in Cambridge, Mass., and moved to Washington, D.C.
N
AUTICAL
A
LMANAC
, B
RITISH
Officially called Royal Nautical Almanac, prepared annual volume of navigation and astronomical tables
N
AVAL
O
BSERVATORY
American National Observatory in Washington, D.C.
N
EUMANN
, J
OHN VON
(1903â1957)
American mathematician and key influence in development of modern electronic computer
N
EW
D
EAL
Popular name for President Franklin Roosevelt's economic relief programs
N
EWCOMB
, S
IMON
(1835â1909)
Director of American Nautical Almanac and, for his time, America's most famous scientist
N
EWTON
, I
SAAC
(1642â1727)
An inventor of calculus and a friend of Edmund Halley
N
EWTON
, I
SAAC
(1837â1884)
Not to be confused with the above, first director of U.S. Department of Agriculture
N
EYMAN
, J
ERZY
(1896â1981)
American statistician, worked on bombing problems in Second World War
P
EARSON
, K
ARL
(1857â1934)
English statistician, founded computing organization and worked on bombing problems in First World War
P
EIRCE
, B
ENJAMIN
(1809â1880)
American mathematician, friend of Charles Henry Davis, staff member of Nautical Almanac, director of Coast Survey
P
ICKERING
, E
DWARD
(1846â1919)
Director, Harvard Observatory, hired large numbers of female computers
P
ONTÃCOULANT
, P
HILIPPE
G
USTAVE
L
E
D
OULCET, COMTE DE
(1795â1874)
Computed 1835 and 1910 returns of Halley's comet
P
RINCIPIA
Isaac Newton's book on planetary motion
R
ICHARDSON
, L
EWIS
F
RY
(1881â1953)
English meteorologist, envisioned truly massive computing laobratory
R
OCKEFELLER
F
OUNDATION
Philanthropic organization of Rockefeller family, supported mathematical research
R
OYAL
A
STRONOMICAL
S
OCIETY
English scientific society organized in 1821 as an alternative to Royal
Society (
see below
); Babbage a member; supported computational work
R
OYAL
S
OCIETY
England's first scientific society
S
AUNDERS
, R
HODA
(
DATES UNKNOWN
)
Computer at Harvard Observatory
S
CHEUTZ
, E
DVARD
(1821â1888)
AND
G
EORGE
(1785â1873)
Inventors of a difference engine following Babbage's ideas
S
MITH
, A
DAM
(1723â1790)
Scottish philosopher and economist
S
NEDECOR
, G
EORGE
(1881â1974)
Iowa statistician, student of George Glover
S
TIBITZ
, G
EORGE
(1904â1995)
Staff member of Bell Telephone Laboratories, inventor of machine to do complex arithmetic with telephone relays
T
AUSSKY
-T
ODD
, O
LGA
(1906â1995)
English mathematician and member of National Bureau of Standards staff
T
HOMAS
J. W
ATSON
A
STRONOMICAL
C
OMPUTING
B
UREAU
Early punched card computing bureau at Columbia University
T
OLLEY
, H
OWARD
(1889â1958)
Mathematician and computer at U.S. Department of Agriculture
T
RACTS FOR
C
OMPUTERS
Computing pamphlets published by Karl Pearson
T
RIPOS
Mathematical exams at Cambridge University in England; top students are known as First Wrangler, Second Wrangler, and so on
V
EBLEN
, O
SWALD
(1880â1960)
American mathematician, nephew of economist Thorstein Veblen, leader of American computing effort in First World War, and member of Applied Mathematics Panel during Second World War
W
ALLACE
, H
ENRY
A. (1888â1965)
American secretary of agriculture, vice president, and amateur mathematician, associated with computing groups at Iowa State College and U.S. Department of Agriculture
W
ATSON
, T
HOMAS
J., S
R
. (1874â1956)
First president of IBM
W
EAVER
, W
ARREN
(1898â1978)
University of Wisconsin mathematician, chair of Applied Mathematics Panel in Second World War, scientific program director for Rockefeller Foundation
W
IENER
, N
ORBERT
(1894â1964)
MIT mathematician, member of First World War ballistics computing effort
W
ILKS
, S
AMUEL
(1906â1964)
Statistician at Institute for Advanced Study, member of Applied Mathematics Panel
W
ILSON
, E
LIZABETH
W
EBB
(1896â1980)
Ballistics computer, First World War
W
ORK
P
ROJECTS
A
DMINISTRATION
(WPA) (1935â1943)
American economic relief program during Great Depression, organized and financed Mathematical Tables Project
Y
OWELL
, E
VERETT
Name of two computers, one for the U.S. Naval Observatory and the second with the Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau
Notes
I
NTRODUCTION
A G
RANDMOTHER
'
S
S
ECRET
L
IFE
1
. Record Books for Mathematics 49 (1918), Mathematics 53 (1918), Mathematics 4B (1920), BENTLEY.
2
. Class Records, 1917â21, MICHIGAN; Annual Reports, BENTLEY.
3
. Karpinsky, “James W. Glover.”
4
. Glover, “Courses in Actuarial Mathematics.”
5
. Letters for Baillo, deVries, Hall, and McDonald, Alumni Directories, 1937, 1953, ALUM.
6
. Barlow,
Barlow's Tables
, preface.
7
. Babbage,
Economy of Machinery and Manufactures
, p. 191.
8
. Croarken and Campbell-Kelly,
Table Making from Sumer to Spreadsheets
, preface; McLeish,
Number
, pp. 26, 65â66.
9
. Galison and Hevly,
Big Science
.
10
. See, for example, Galison and Hevly,
Big Science
.
11
. Cardwell,
Norton History of Technology
, pp. 105, 106.
12
. Ibid., p. 107.
C
HAPTER
O
NE
T
HE
F
IRST
A
NTICIPATED
R
ETURN
1
. Newton,
Principia
, preface.
2
. Cook,
Edmund Halley
, p. 209.
3
. Quoted in ibid., p. 210.
4
. Ibid., p. 211.
5
. Ibid., p. 212.
6
. Edmund Halley to Isaac Newton, September 28, 1695, in MacPike,
Correspondence of Edmund Halley
, p. 92.
7
. Edmond Halley to Isaac Newton, October 7, 1695, ibid., pp. 92â93.
8
. Isaac Newton to Edmund Halley, October 17, 1695, ibid., pp. 93â94.
9
. Cook,
Edmund Halley
, p. 211.
10
. Halley,
Astronomiae Cometicae Synopsis
(1705).
11
. Rigaud,
Some Account of Halley's Astronomiae Cometicae Synopsis
, pp. 3â23; Broughton, “The First Predicted Return of Comet Halley.”
12
. Halley,
Astronomical Tables
(1752); Broughton, “The First Predicted Return of Comet Halley,” has noted that if Halley used the old-style calendar, in which the year changes at the March equinox, then Halley's prediction was very close to the actual date of March 13.
13
. Halley,
Astronomical Tables
(1752).
14
.
Smith, A., “The Principles Which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries” (1757), p. 48.
15
. Messier and Maty, “A Memoir, Containing the History of the Return of the Famous Comet of 1682. ⦔
16
. Gillispie,
Dictionary of Scientific Biography
.
17
. Barker to Bradley, in
Philosophical Transactions (1683â1775)
.
18
. Alder,
The Measure of All Things
(2002), p. 78.
19
. She is sometimes identified in the literature as Hortense Lepaute.
20
. Lalande,
Astronomie
(1792), pp. 676â81.
21
. Alder,
The Measure of All Things
(2002), p. 78.
22
. Lalande,
Astronomie
(1792), pp. 676â81.
23
. Wilson, “Clairaut's Calculation of Halley's Comet” (1993).
24
. Lalande,
Astronomie
(1792), pp. 676â81.
25
. Ibid.
26
. Swift,
Gulliver's Travels
, Section 3.
27
. Ibid.
28
. Wilson, “Appendix: Clairaut's Calculation of the Comet's Return” (1995).
29
. Wilson, “Clairaut's Calculation of Halley's Comet” (1993).
30
. Lalande,
Astronomie
(1792), pp. 676â81.
31
. Wilson, “Clairaut's Calculation of Halley's Comet” (1993).
32
. Yeomans, “Comet HalleyâThe Orbital Motion” (1977).
33
. Quoted in Gillispie,
Dictionary of Scientific Biography
, p. 283; Wilson, “Appendix: Clairaut's Calculation of the Comet's Return” (1995).
34
. Wilson, “Appendix: Clairaut's Calculation of the Comet's Return” (1995).
35
. Hobart and Schiffman,
Information Ages
, p. 166.
36
. Jean d'Alembert quoted in Wilson (1993); Wilson (1995) gives a fairly complete account and assessment of the controversy.
37
. Wilson, “Clairaut's Calculation of Halley's Comet” (1993).
38
. Ibid.
39
. Alexis Clairaut quoted in Wilson, “Appendix: Clairaut's Calculation of the Comet's Return” (1995).
40
. Messier and Maty, “A Memoir, Containing the History of the Return of the Famous Comet of 1682. ⦔
41
. Lalande,
Astronomie
(1792), pp. 676â81.
42
. Ibid.
43
. Stigler, “Stigler's Law of Eponymy” (1999), p. 277.
C
HAPTER
T
WO
T
HE
C
HILDREN OF
A
DAM
S
MITH
1
. Smith, A., “The Principles Which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries” (1757).
2
. Foley,
Social Physics of Adam Smith
, p. 34.
3
. Smith, A.,
Wealth of Nations
(1776), book 1, chapter 1.
4
. Ibid.
5
. Ibid.
6
.
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Car. II, 1675â76, p. 173, June 22, 1675, British Library, MS Birch 4393 f 104 r, v; Public Record Office, Kew, State Papers Domestic Entry Book 44, p. 10.
7
. See Betts,
Harrison
, and Andrews,
The Quest for Longitude
.
8
. Mayer,
Tabulae Motuum Solis et Lunae Novae et Correctae
(1770); Mayer,
Theoria Lunae Juxta Systema Newtonianum
(1767).
9
. Leonhard Euler to Tobias Mayer, February 26, 1754, in Forbes (1971),
Connaissance des Temps pour l'Année 1761
, Paris, De l'Imprimerie Royale, 1761.
10
. Sobel,
Longitude
.
11
. Maskelyne, Nevil, “Memorial Presented to the Commissioners of the Longitude,” February 9, 1765, in Mayer,
Tabulae Motuum Solis et Lunae Novae et Correctae
(1770), pp. cxviiâcxx; see also Betts,
Harrison
(1993), and Andrews,
The Quest for Longitude
(1996).
12
. Croarken, “Tabulating the Heavens.”
13
. Ibid.
14
. Maskelyne,
The British Mariner's Guide
(1763), pp. ivâv.
15
. Howse,
Nevil Maskelyne
, p. 60.